Bronx Bomber Ball

With the Yankees' season nearly a month over, the dust has finally settled and the offseason is in full swing. The Yankees had strong aspirations for the third consecutive year and came up short of their goal for the third straight year. With this being said, there is a lot to discuss and speculate, and here are a handful of our writers' takes on what happened in 2019 and what may go down in the 2019-2020 offseason as the Yankees strive to finally get back to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009.  Photo Credit: NY Post

It is officially acceptable to say “next team up” as the Yankees have swept the Minnesota Twins and will be moving on to face the winner of the Astros and Rays in the 2019 ALCS. Despite only being two games better than the Twins in the regular season and losing their home run record to the AL Central champs, the Yankees absolutely dominated the Twins in this series. With this series now concluded, the Yankees have won 13 straight playoff games against the Twins. This series also resulted in the Yankees having the second-best run differential in a three-game playoff series ever at a mark of +16. Photo Credit: Twitter

No matter how you felt about the deadline, it progressed differently than most would have expected, given the Yankees lack of moves. While it is undebatable that this team still has World Series talent, it is still unlike a championship contender to not address its most glaring needs. Here is what our staff had to say about what transpired: NJ.com

With the All-Star break coming into a close, the Yankees sit at the top of the American League East with a comfortable 6.5 game lead of the second place Tampa Bay Rays. By winning percentage, they are the best team in the American League as they have a two-game advantage in the loss-column over the Houston Astros. With all this being said, it is not a surprise that the Yankees head into the second leg of the season as the favorites to meet the best team in the National League in the World Series. Per MyTopSportsBooks.com, the Bovada odds for the Yankees to win the championship sit at +320 , the second best mark to the Los Angeles Dodgers who sit at +250. In order of their respective odds, the Astros, Twins, and Rays are the Yankees’ biggest threats. Instead of focusing on the other teams in this race, I want to take a quick look on what must go right for the Yankees to continue on this course. Photo Credit: AP

As MLB heads into the 2019 All-Star break, it’s no secret that Yankees’ 2B/SS Gleyber Torres is one of the best young players in the game. He recently earned his second All-Star selection in his sophomore season, albeit as a replacement, but it is universally agreed that he was snubbed the first time through. He heads into the break with an OPS just south of .900, an OPS+ of 132, a 2.5 WAR, and 19 home runs. Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Yankees kicked off a historic week by taking three games from the Blue Jays. The Yankees tied the consecutive game home run record with a home run off the bat of Aaron Hicks in game one of the three-game. This game was initially a blowout, but Jonathan Holder’s implosion in the eighth resulted in the game becoming much closer than it should have. The Yankees were able to hold on.   Photo Credit: NY Post

With DJ LeMahieu’s home run in the first inning of tonight's game, the Yankees officially hold the record for the most consecutive games hitting a home run. Aaron Hicks tied the record with his home run in yesterdays’ game and his teammate, LeMahieu took no time to put the Yankees in sole possession of the feat.   Photo Credit: ESPN.com

News broke last night that the Yankees had made their first splash of the summer trade season by acquiring slugger Edwin Encarnacion from the Seattle Mariners. Encarnacion is the American League home run leader and will be a welcomed addition to the team he has hit well against over the course of his career. To many including myself, this trade was very fuzzy at first glance. The Yankees did not have a need to acquire an offensive player, especially when their pitching has been their weakness, thus far. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton’s imminent returns further blurred the reasoning behind this trade. However, after further thought, I have come up with six implications that result from this trade, all of which help make sense of this move. Kathy Willens | AP

With their sixth-round pick, 195th overall, in the 2019 draft, the New York Yankees selected right-handed starting pitcher, Hayden Wesneski, out of Sam Houston State. He was a 33rd round pick in the 2016 draft, but decided to go to college instead, where he thrived. Wesneski played three years as a Bearkat and threw at least 84 innings in each.  His best year in school was certainly this past season, where he posted a 3.32 ERA in 105.2 innings, including two complete games in 15 starts.  Standing at six-foot-three, Wesneski has a plus fastball, as well as an average slider and changeup in his arsenal, according to scouts.  In his three years at Sam Houston State, Wesneski compiled a 25-9 record in 51 appearances (44 starts).  To go along with his 288 IP, he had an ERA of 3.56 and struck out 224 while walking only 76 men.  We were fortunate enough to get to speak with Wesneski and get to know him a little bit better as a person and a player. Below is an intervie...

The New York Yankees started off the second day of the MLB draft by selecting a college outfielder by the name of Jake Sanford out of Western Kentucky University. Sanford stands at 6’2” and weighs 215 pounds. He throws right-handed, but hits left-handed. Photo Credit: WKU Sports

The Yankees currently sit at 32-17 and are on top of the AL East. Despite this, the team has some areas it could improve in; however, Brian Cashman will not have to dig into his pocketbook or pick up the phone to get all the help this team needs. The team is expecting reinforcements off of the IL on both sides of the ball over the course of the next two months, which should give this already successful team an even bigger boost. However, this does not mean the Yankees will be silent on the trade market as more injuries could amount, setbacks can happen, and other teams will acquire big pieces resulting in the Yankees not wanting to fall behind. The Yankees are coming off two consecutive successful regular seasons followed by postseason failures, and still have the minor league talent to swing some game-changing deals. With this in mind, here are six early candidates to keep an eye on as the major league season transitions into the summer months. Photo Credit: Balt...

What looked to be a lost game, following a disastrous start by JA Happ, turned into one of the Yankees’ most dramatic comeback wins of the young season. The bullpen held the Orioles to one run, following Happ’s departure, and the Yankees rallied for nine runs in the last four innings of play.   Photo Credit: Nick Wass | AP 

Flashback to early 2018, and Yankees’ infielder Thairo Estrada endured a tragedy much bigger than the game of baseball. He sustained a gunshot wound in an attempted robbery back in his home country of Venezuela. His injury was not life-threatening, but still created consequences that the average baseball player does not have to go through. His initial surgery to remove the bullet was carried out poorly, arguably causing more damage than the initial wound, however he was cleared to play and felt ready to go. Photo Credit: Elsa | Getty Images

With a plethora of outfielders on the IL, the Yankees struck a move Thursday morning to improve their outfield depth by trading for veteran outfielder Cameron Maybin from the Cleveland Indians. The move was first reported by Jack Curry of YES.   Photo Credit: Yahoo Sports

Coming off an impressive two-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees were flat yesterday as they dropped game one of the four-game series versus the lowly Royals. However, the bats woke up today and backed CC Sabathia’s second consecutive start in which he allowed zero earned runs.   Photo Credit: Frank Franklin II | AP

The Yankees came into the rubber game determined to come out of the opening series with a win as Aaron Judge expressed how much these games meant in the long run. However, the Yankees were unable to beat the lowly Orioles for the second consecutive day and drop to 1-2 on the season.   Photo Credit: Seth Wenig

After what seemed like a never-ending offseason and a month’s worth of spring training games, the Yankees are finally back in regular season action on Thursday afternoon against one of their division rivals, the Baltimore Orioles. Both teams are going in different directions coming into the 2019 season. The Yankees are fresh off their second straight Wild Card win, but also their second consecutive elimination prior to reaching the Fall Classic. Expectations are high once again in the Bronx, as the Yankees are bringing back a similar squad, along with some key offseason acquisitions, that helped them win 100 games a year ago.  The Orioles are in a blatant rebuilding mode and come in projected to be one of the worst teams in the American League. They have some solid young players, but are not labeled as serious contenders for 2019. Nevertheless, this series should not be assumed to be an easy sweep for the Yankees. They severely struggled against teams below .500 las...

With Yankees’ Spring Training games starting this week, writers of the BBB weigh in on what topics and they are most interested in following early in camp. Photo Credit: Eve Edelheit/New York Times * * * * * * * * * *

News broke today from Padres’ reporter Dennis Lin of the Athletic that the San Diego Padres are interested in acquiring Indians’ RHP Corey Kluber. This makes sense as the Padres have a plethora of young talent to deal, but also a strong core of players they can build around. However, there is a twist. The report of the Padres’ interest also included that the Padres would be interested in flipping him for a third baseman to anchor their infield. Kluber would instantly help the Friars, but with his window of solid years left closing, the match is not perfect.   Photo Credit: Getty Images

Along with being Yankee enthusiasts, the staff here at BBB is comprised of avid baseball fans across the entirety of the sport. With that being said, we decided to complete a mock Hall of Fame voting using the 2019 candidates. Similar to the official voting, our ballots could only comprise of up to ten candidates, but choosing less than ten candidates was surely an option. Any player with a mark above 75% would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, if the voting rested in our hands. Here are the results of the eleven ballots casted: Photo Credit: USA Today Sports